At last, Ask Maggie, Volume II is available for purchase! I was finished with the text back in October, and even uploaded it and assigned a release date; however, I then sort of ran out of steam with regard to commissioning the cover and other finishing details. I started to get back into the swing of it around Christmas, but not quickly, so it wasn’t until a few weeks ago that I ordered my proof and put the Kindle edition together. But now it’s all done, and you can buy it on Amazon in either paperback or Kindle form! If you prefer an autographed copy, you shouldn’t have long to wait; I’ve already ordered a box, and as soon as it arrives I’ll add this book to my store along with all the others. If you’re wondering what’s next, I think I’m leaning toward a third fiction collection, which will bear the title Lost Angels; I want to write several original stories for it to go with the usual reprints, and I’m hoping Chester Brown will agree to do a cover so the three volumes match. It will probably be out in the autumn, but I’m not going to commit myself to a specific time frame; though I was able to pull off four new collections last year (counting this one, which was officially published in October), it was tough and a bit stressful, and a bit too much by the end. So I’d rather not do that again. As usual, if you buy and read this one, please review it; I’m not sure how Amazon’s algorithms work, but I know good reviews help.
Posts Tagged ‘advertising’
Ask Maggie, Volume II
Posted in Miscellaneous, Q & A, tagged advertising, Ask Maggie, Lost Angels on February 19, 2021| Leave a Comment »
Green
Posted in Q & A, tagged advertising, Advice for Clients, screening on January 14, 2021| Leave a Comment »
For someone fairly “green”, how much of an obstacle will lack of references be? I only have one prior engagement made through an international agency some years ago; would that suffice? I saw a reference to “verification service” on the contact form on your website; could this help me? Also, I’m from a small city; scheduling an appointment in the nearest large one is challenging for a variety of reasons, though I do intend be opportunistic, if I’m in the area.
First of all, you may find this article I wrote for Reason magazine three years ago useful; it has a lot of basic information you may not have considered. I think it’s unlikely most US escorts would accept an international reference, except from Canada; since it’s rare for prospective US clients to produce international references, even the attempt might seem odd to most US escorts. And because we learn to trust our instincts, even an odd feeling might cause an escort to reject you, especially during this time when cops are aggresssively trophy-hunting. I therefore think it would be better for you to look for an escort who is “newbie friendly” (ladies who are will generally advertise thus), and relies on some form of screening other than references. You will need to provide whatever information she uses for the check (probably full name, profession, phone number, stuff like that; she may also require a deposit). After you see her, she can in turn provide references to other escorts. A verification service may help you; this is a company which verifies that you are who you represent yourself to be, usually by checking your employment and/or a background check. You needn’t worry about discretion; it is not in such services’ best interest to violate your confidence or risk exposing you, because such a breach would undermine its business model (the same can be said for escorts, BTB; one of the things you’re paying for is discretion). The best-known such service in the US is probably P411; it is not without faults, but I doubt you’ll have to worry about them.
I think it would probably be better for you to seek your first US experience in the nearby large city rather than your own small one, even if that means making some excuse to travel to the city overnight. In a larger city, you’re more likely to find experienced professionals who will work with you, and references from well-known escorts are more likely to be widely accepted than references from a relative unknown in a small city. Also, many of the escorts in smaller cities tend on average to be less professional for the simple reason that they have less business and fewer personal contacts with other pros; many small-city escorts don’t screen as thoroughly, and their vouch for you is therefore less likely to be useful when booking other escorts in the future. Plan ahead; do your research and make a date well in advance rather than simply blowing into town and then opportunistically trying to make a same-day appointment, because that will sharply limit your selection and you may not be able to arrange anything at all.
(Have a question of your own? Please consult this page to see if I’ve answered it in a previous column, and if not just click here to ask me via email.)
Semi-retired
Posted in Biography, Call types, Perception, tagged activism, advertising, psychology, screening, sex work is work on January 2, 2021| 6 Comments »
Twenty-one years ago today, on January 2nd, 2000, I started escorting full-time; now today I’m officially semi-retiring. I had originally hoped this day would come much sooner, but life happened and financial disasters befell me, and it wasn’t until two years ago that I realized the time had finally come to scale back my professional life. When I first went full-time I had already been doing various kinds of sex work (compensated dating, sugaring, stripping, etc) on and off for fifteen years, and after today I’ll still be seeing my regular clients (and other gents who have seen me at least once before) and a very few who come recommended by friends. Even during the past 21 years I’ve done several different kinds of work (agency escorting, bachelor parties, running my own agency, independent escorting, and even a long-term exclusive gig). So, this isn’t a simple, linear matter of retirement as it is in straight jobs, and yet it does feel like an ending. I’m no longer using traditional advertising, no longer allowing myself to be solicited via text message by marginally-literate cretins, no longer screening so as to avoid said cretins (not to mention violent costumed rapists), and no longer seeing anyone without planning days or weeks in advance. This doesn’t mean I’m cutting back on activism just yet; I plan to keep writing regularly for a while, and doing public appearances when those become a thing again, and in fact I may possibly have more time and energy for such activities now. But even in that department, things have changed; when I first became an activist there weren’t all that many of us in the US, and now I’m glad to say there are thousands. So all in all, I feel like it’s time to put away my dancing shoes, and settle into my role as an “elder stateswoman” of the demimonde, leaving the field of action to my much younger sisters…including those who weren’t even born yet when I started.
The Home Stretch
Posted in Call types, Perception, tagged advertising, psychology, sex work is work on December 10, 2020| 4 Comments »
Three weeks from today, I’ll be officially semi-retiring. For those who somehow missed my previous announcements and reminders, what this means is that as of January 1st, I’m only going to see clients I’ve seen before. I won’t be taking new ones unless they come recommended by people I know personally, and I won’t be doing any short-notice gigs unless everything is exactly right. So for the most part I’ll only be seeing guys I’ve seen before, with enough notice to fit the dates into my existing schedule without having to turn handstands. No more answering calls from unknown numbers, no more answering cold texts, no more screening, no more feeling annoyed because someone wants a same-day appointment and I feel I have to accept because I don’t want to turn away a blessing. In other words, I’m eliminating all the parts of the job I dislike, the parts that stress me out and wear me down, and keeping all the stuff I like. I’ve often said that one of the funniest of prohibitionist idiocies is the idea that the worst part of whoring is the sex; that’s the easy part! The bad part is all the same crap one has to deal with in any other business, and I’ve never been especially good at business. So I’m shedding as much of the unpleasant stuff as I can, and keeping as much of the pleasant stuff as I can manage, and with Aphrodite’s help, it will all work out for the best.
In the News (#1095)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged A Broker in Pillage, A Moral Cancer, advertising, asset seizure, California, censorship, consensual crime, cops, crypto-moralism, drugs, FBI, internet, law, Morality Lessons, New Orleans, politicians, porn, Pyrrhic Victory, scams, surveillance, The Puritan Recrudescence, weaponry, Winding Down, You Were Warned on December 9, 2020| 1 Comment »
[NOPD] argues the word “employ” means something else when it’s misleading the public. – Tim Cushing
No, Parler doesn’t have a “porn problem”; it has a spam problem:
Anyone following the #sexytrumpgirl hashtag on Parler…got an eyeful one recent Thursday evening as images of topless women and links to hardcore pornography websites appeared at a rapid-fire rate, often more than one per minute…The site’s lax moderation policies…have helped it become a magnet for pornographers, escort services and online sex merchants using hashtags…such as #keepamericasexy and #milfsfortrump2020. The pornography…has the potential to complicate hopes the site may have to expand advertising…[because uptight] major companies typically avoid having their sales pitches appear alongside [sexu]al imagery…Parler once banned all pornography but in recent months revised its terms of service to permit essentially anything that’s legal, making its policy close to Twitter’s…[but] Twitter…has automated systems that prevent excessively rapid posting, as well as other spammy behavior…
I think most normal people would be just as annoyed by rapid-fire tweets hawking car warranties, miracle cures, get-rich-quick schemes, or political theater, but of course that wouldn’t be as lurid as focusing on porn.
Australian cops are envious of the FBI, and want permission to run their own kiddie porn sites:
[Australian pigs and spooks] will be [allowed] to take over the online accounts of [people they accuse of being]…paedophile[s], terrorists and drug-traffickers…under new laws to be introduced in Federal Parliament. The [pigs and spooks] will also be a[llowed] to hack into people’s computer networks [to watch, steal and trade]…child [porn]…The new capabilities will give [pigs and spooks] unprecedented powers to [spy on people and justify it with all kinds of doubletalk about how “]criminals operating on the dark web…can more easily evade traditional law enforcement or investigation methods[“]…Under a new “account takeover power”, [pigs and spooks] will be able to take control of a person’s online account for the purposes of [creating false] evidence about criminal activity…
Why I keep telling you local laws banning facial recognition are feel-good bullshit:
…”The New Orleans Police Department has confirmed that it is utilizing facial recognition…despite years of assurances” t[o] the…contrary…this report by The Tenth Amendment Center makes the NOPD’s relationship with the tech more explicit…“the NOPD has…relied on technology operated by the Louisiana State Police…[via] the state fusion center”…the NOPD…”does not employ facial recognition software”…in the sense that the PD does not own the tech…It clearly does use it. It just outsources that work to other agencies — including federal law enforcement — that do own the tech…The city is considering a facial recognition ban. But this admission the PD outsources its facial recognition work means it won’t be enough to simply forbid the PD from buying and utilizing its own tech. The proposal would need to be rewritten to prevent the PD from sending its photos to state or federal agencies for proxy searching. The vote on the proposed ban has been delayed as city council members process the NOPD’s lies about its facial recognition use and decide what to do with this new information…now the city knows it can’t trust its own police department to be honest with it…
Take it from someone intimately acquainted with how things are done in New Orleans: the city council already knew. The vote has simply been delayed so they can think up good butt-covering lies.
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors has banned people from smoking in their own apartments…the board voted 10–1 in favor of a bill…to prohibit smoking tobacco inside private dwellings in buildings with three or more units. Violators…could receive fines of up to $1,000…The…bill…at [first]…also applied to smoking legal cannabis…[but] an amendment…exempts marijuana…be[cause] cannabis [is politically correct but tobacco is not]…
Burying government in lawsuits is the only way to slow its depredations:
Civil asset forfeiture laws, which allow the government to s[teal] property…without ever charging the owner, are fundamentally rigged in favor of the [cop shops] that get a cut of the proceeds. Even when an owner manages to challenge a forfeiture…he has the burden of proving his innocence, and the process often costs more than the property is worth. Adding insult to injury, the government can drag out the process for so long that even innocent owners feel compelled to surrender. The Institute for Justice (I.J.) challenges that aspect of civil forfeiture in an appeal it filed this week, asking the Supreme Court to rule that due process requires a prompt post-seizure hearing…The…case involves Gerardo Serrano, a U.S. citizen and Kentucky resident whose pickup truck was s[tolen] by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in September 2015, while he was on his way to visit relatives in Mexico. The official, patently absurd justification: The truck was suspected of involvement in international arms smuggling, because Serrano had forgotten about a handgun magazine and five rounds he had left in the center console. He waited two years without a hearing until CBP suddenly decided to return the truck in 2017, a month after I.J. filed a lawsuit on his behalf. The circumstances…strongly suggest that Serrano was punished for asserting his constitutional rights…
Congress won’t stop until it controls the internet:
…Legislation to limit or abolish Section 230 has become popular in Congress…but with the exception of the 2018 sex-ad law FOSTA, most of these have gone nowhere. Now, some [politicians] are taking a different tack. Instead of pushing a standalone attack on Section 230, Sen. Roger Wicker…will allegedly introduce an anti-Section 230 bit into the latest defense spending bill…
And guess who’s actually behind it?
Donald Trump is threatening to veto a defense policy bill unless it [allows]…internet companies t[o be sued or prosecuted]…for material posted by their users…Trump has been waging war against social media companies for months, claiming they are biased against [him]…the…veto threat is another potential roadblock for the passage of the annual defense policy measure, which is already being held up in Congress by a spat over military bases named for Confederate officers…
A big step toward ending the disastrous War on Drugs:
The United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs…[has] accepted a World Health Organization…recommendation to remove cannabis and cannabis resin from Schedule IV of the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs. The historic vote in Vienna could have far-reaching implications for the global medical cannabis industry, ranging from regulatory oversight to scientific research into the plant and its use as a medicine…it could help boost medical cannabis legalization efforts around the globe now that the CND tacitly acknowledges the medical utility of the drug…
In the Store
Posted in Miscellaneous, Q & A, tagged advertising, Ask Maggie on September 7, 2020| 1 Comment »
It used to be that when I ordered a box of my own books, it arrived just as quickly as anything else I purchased from Amazon. But the pandemic seems to have dramatically slowed the process; it now takes weeks after ordering for the books to show up. I ordered a box of Ask Maggie, Volume I almost a week before I announced the book was available, and it was finally delivered on Saturday! Since I didn’t want to have to sit on a number of orders until the books arrived, I didn’t start offering autographed copies until that date was at least closer. But now I believe and hope it’s close enough; if you’d like an autographed copy of it or any of my other books, please visit my store by clicking on the picture at the top of the right-hand column. I’d also like to ask a favor; once you buy and read the book (whether from me or directly from Amazon), would you please take the time to review it? Since I now have a number of products available there (five books, two short stories and a documentary), I only lack a sufficient number of reviews to trigger Amazon’s algorthms to start suggesting it to browsers in the greater Amazon ecosystem. And given how economically difficult this year has been, that would be a great help to me.
Links #530
Posted in Current Events, Links, Miscellaneous, Tyranny, tagged advertising, animals, cops, Florida, genitalia, Germany, Maryland, Massachusetts, teachers, Tennessee, video on August 30, 2020| Leave a Comment »
You have two things against you — you’re black and I have a badge. – Donald Kincaid
Vincent Price was never too proud or snobbish to appear in just about anything, including a plethora of TV commercials from the ’70s and ’80s; this one was from one of the first credit cards to offer reward points. The links above the video were provided by Scott Greenfield, Rick Horowitz, Tim Cushing, Radley Balko, Mike Siegel, and Thaddeus Russell, in that order.
- As one does.
- Much more of this, please.
- I hate it when this happens.
- Just another isolated incident.
- Prude wants zoo to hire elephant whores.
- Public school is an organ of the police state.
From the Archives
- They make these cases sound like the rapist was doing his victims a favor.
- Cops, naivety, politicians, crypto-moralism, marble music and much more.
- How can a male professional service provider cultivate sex worker clients?
- Another “Uber for escorts” app developed without consulting sex workers.
- There is no “debate”; this is supported only by politicians and developers.
- Victim can’t get civil damages because rapist worked for the government.
- This sex-ray contaminated money would have “sexualized” their patients!
- If this happens to a rich, prominent man, what happens to the rest of us?
- Persecution of sex workers is part of lack of rights for women in general.
- Journalists never ask why women risk death to escape “rescue” by cops.
- If the Democrats cared about human rights, this would be their position.
- The public will believe anything on billboards, no matter how ridiculous.
- Glenn Kessler located the bogus numbers behind this truly-dumb claim.
- Cops, censorship, Cherokees, giant meteors, Shazam! and much more.
- UK cops increasingly use the euphemism “team” to mean “vice squad”.
- It’s never called “trafficking” when the government or a crony does it.
- Reporter helps cops add insult to injury by infantilizing a rape victim.
- It may already be far too late to put this evil djinni back in its bottle.
- Another entry in the “sex trafficking” scare story invasion of Twitter.
- Man says women shouldn’t be paid for services men can’t perform.
- Y’all didn’t stand up for pros; now they’re coming for you dabblers.
- Dr. David Ley vs. the childish belief that pictures of sex are magic.
- One day, simply listing a job on a job list will not be controversial.
- A UN official finally admits what I’ve been pointing out for years.
- I hope you amateurs enjoy the world your silence helped create.
- European “anti-trafficking” racism is getting harder to disguise.
- Cop murders sex worker for resisting his attempt to rape her.
- Hey prohibitionists, are you proud of your accomplishments?
- A retrospective of my blogging from August 2015 and 2016.
- Only one major victim of the Satanic panic is still in prison.
- Any internet-connected device can be used to spy on you.
- The State wants us to call this a “correctional institution”.
- Why are amateurs so obsessed with sex workers’ taxes?
- What kind of sex work should an 18-year-old virgin do?
- He probably just thought he was in a “sex doll brothel”.
- A hopeless mess even by yellow journalism standards.
- Another trans sex worker murdered, this time in Paris.
- The point of interrogation is not to collect information.
- I hope they never catch her; this is admirably badass.
- A predictable outgrowth of “sex trafficking” hysteria.
- “Criminals using massage as a front for sex crimes”.
- The dystopian future of Minority Report has arrived.
- The ugliest part of a peak moral panic: lynch mobs.
- Your government refers to this as “correction”.
- “Youth pastors” are nearly as bad as cops.
- I’ve been telling you so for ten years now.
- I’m not sure which is more ludicrous.
- The Dog Days go and a pony arrives.
- My autumn 2019 travel schedule.
- What makes a trip good?
- Rapist cop of the week.
Ask Maggie, Volume I
Posted in Miscellaneous, Q & A, tagged advertising, Ask Maggie on August 24, 2020| Leave a Comment »
Despite delays and obstructions, Ask Maggie, Volume I is here! It contains 80 of my answers to reader questions, and volume II (currently planned for October) will feature another 80. I’m really pleased to have been able to keep up the pace I set for myself by publishing one book every three months this year; I’m hoping I can maintain that for the three books I want to publish next year, starting in January. As usual, you can buy the book at Amazon (and here’s the Kindle edition); if you prefer an autographed copy, they’ll be available in my bookstore as soon as the box of my own copies arrives (last time they took much longer than expected). Thank you for reading, and please consider helping me out by reviewing it on Amazon!
Catching Up, Revisited
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, Q & A, tagged advertising, Ask Maggie, blogging, The Essential Maggie McNeill, Twitter on August 17, 2020| Leave a Comment »
Seven years ago I published “Catching Up“, in which I gave a new reader advice of how to get started reading my blog. At the time, I compared the strategy of starting at the beginning and trying to read every post with “hacking your way across the Amazon Basin with a machete,” and since there are now roughly 3.5 times as many posts as there were then, that is barely even hyperbole any more. Some of the advice is still good, such as the following:
…subscribe to the blog and read the new columns as they come out; most of them contain links to older columns, which you could then read as they come up…[twice a week] I publish a news column…made up of…short subsections; each item has its own title, and the vast majority of those titles refer back to older posts (each containing a link to the referenced post). This will lead you to a lot of older columns every week, assuming you have the time! Also, every Sunday I publish a “Links” column, and the bottom section, “From the Archives”, contains links to the posts from that same week for the past two years; you could click on and read any that sound interesting. You can also follow me on Twitter, where I share lots of interesting links…and also remind readers of my columns from that same day one, two and…three years in the past…
But now that I’ve been publishing for over a decade, the best way to start is to simply buy my “best of” collections, The Essential Maggie McNeill, Volume I and Volume II; they’re available in both paperback and Kindle editions, and each contains 52 hand-picked, revised and edited essays from the first six years of the blog. Then watch this space for future “best of” collections, including Ask Maggie, Volume I (a collection of 80 answers to reader questions, which should be available later this week) and Volume II (same, should be available in October). In addition to presenting what I think are my most important essays in a more accessible and easier-to-browse format, these volumes give you the chance to support my work in a tangible way, which is especially important in these difficult times; it’s a perfect example of a win-win situation!